The Agent-Player Relationship Is Broken — Levi Wallace Wants to Fix It

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Welcome back, everybody.
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Elivette Collection Podcast here at Hampton Tech We'll at Montauk Yacht Club.
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Levi and Wallace, we're on a yacht in Montauk.
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How are you doing?
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I'm doing amazing.
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Can you imagine this weather?
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No.
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We have asked for better weather.
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100%.
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100%.
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What a great place to have this conversation.
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I'm so excited to have you on the podcast.
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We have so many incredible things to talk about.
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First of all, give the LA community a little insight about who you are.
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Levi Wallace, two-time national champion, University of Alabama.
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Played eight years in the league, Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers, Denver Broncos, finished with Jacksonville Jaguars.
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Just transitioned over to work with Legacy Trust Sports Group as a sports agent.
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Sold my own business, Sprinter Van business out in Arizona.
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Have my own nonprofit, Levi Wallace Foundation, and investor.
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Amazing.
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Alright, so let's talk about the transition from athlete to agent.
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What made you take that route when there are a thousand routes that you could take?
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Okay, a couple things.
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Number one, I think I'd be an amazing coach.
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And I think a lot of players get into coaching, and I have a really high IQ for the game.
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But the hours that coaches put in are insane, way more than players.
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Um, and I've already dedicated 20 years of my whole life to football and being in that building for hours and hours and hours in my body, and I just couldn't do that anymore.
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And so being in a locker room, most of the locker room talk is about families and and finances, but a lot of it is about agents and agencies and marketing and what are agencies doing for our guys.
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And you quickly realize a lot of guys have the same story that they don't talk to their agents at all.
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Um outside of contracts, and when they get injured, they don't have any relationship with their with their agents.
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And it's kind of sad because you're paying somebody a percentage of your contract, and all you need is somebody to be honest with you and have a relationship with you.
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You know, this is a lifelong partnership, I feel like it should be.
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And so I was like, you know what?
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Somebody should change that.
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And not a not a lot of players go into this side of football.
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Um, everyone goes into coaching, they go back to high schools, they go back into uh the communities and become coaches, and I'm like, I I don't know if I really want to do that.
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Um, but I still love the game.
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I'm an expert at football.
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That's all I've known.
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And so I want to be in this this space of it all.
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I absolutely love this path for you and what you're doing.
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Are there any specific initiatives you're bringing into your resources as an agent that you wish you would have had when you were playing?
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Uh, you know, I just feel like agents and agencies should try to help players encompass it all without being paid to do it.
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You know, usually you hear the lines of a pipeline, and hey, we'll refer you guys here, you guys refer us guys, you know, a lot of backdoor deals, especially on this side of it that I'm hearing.
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And I'm like, listen, I already made my money.
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I don't need to get paid off by trying to just pass a guy to you just because of you know me and I know you.
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Now, if you're a great person and I vet you and I trust you, I will put you on my short list and I will leave that up to that guy, that player, to reach out and have a conversation and he'll meet with you.
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And if he likes you, he'll go with you.
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But that's it.
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I'm not going to say, hey, so-and-so, sign with this dude and start trying to really convince him to do that because you have these guys trust.
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When you're their agent, you have their trust, they don't know the ins and outs of um the financial literacy.
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Um, you know, you're taught, get an agent, get somebody to do your taxes, hire a financial advisor.
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And it's like a lot of guys, they're all encompassed with each other, you know, and they're all in business with each other.
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And you like quickly find out, oh, that's I have the same guy, or I have the same guy, or we're in the same agency.
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It's like, uh, I don't know if it's supposed to be like that.
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And so the guys that I represent, I'm like, listen, meet a few different people.
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You know what I mean?
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You know, my my financial advisor might not be your cup of tea.
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It's personality-wise too.
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You know, if you can't have a relationship with these people, it might not be for you.
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This has been the whole premise of the reason that we built the Elevate Collection is that we believe we elevate by elevating others.
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And we noticed that there was a huge predatory space in in the athlete world where these service providers were maybe not in it for the right reasons or were price scourging or you know, and they're having the right team around you is everything.
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100%.
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There's no doubt in my mind you're gonna be an absolutely incredible agent, and I love what you're building there.
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But you're not only a former player and an agent, now you have the well, you've had for a while the Levi Wallace Foundation too.
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Tell us what you're doing with that and how you're working in the community.
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Yeah, so we just wrapped up a couple weeks ago, back to back weekends.
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We took 15 high schoolers suit shopping.
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Wow.
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15 high schoolers suit shopping.
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Um, talk about the importance of the look.
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Uh every away game, obviously at Alabama, we all wore suits because Saban was not playing that.
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But when we got to the league, we all wear suits too in Buffalo.
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And then COVID hit, and everyone started wearing jumpsuits.
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And the DBs in Buffalo, like five of us, we were together for four years.
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We all continued to wear suits on every away game.
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Just us.
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And it was just like a I don't know, a confidence thing, maybe.
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I tell you.
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We thought we were the best group we were at at one point in the NFL.
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And so we we walked, we walked around like it.
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And every away game since then, wherever I've played at, I've always wanted uh a suit.
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I've always tried to look my best.
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You know, dress good, feel good, play good.
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That's exactly what I was thinking.
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And so trying to talk about the importance of the look, and it's not fair, but it is what it is, and how people how serious people take you.
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Um, and then you'll need a suit, whether that's graduation, that's weddings coming up, going to college, businesses, I mean, whatever you're interested in, and you'll need one good suit, but then also giving these kids that don't have a whole lot something that belongs to them.
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A lot of kids get passed downs, and just to see the smile on these kids' faces, like this suit fits me, it's tailored to me.
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Nobody else in the world can wear this suit but me.
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The best feeling ever.
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That is a that is such a gift to them.
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I personally came from a single-family household, underprivileged youth.
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I've benefited from programs like what the Levi Wallace Foundation has created.
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I was an angel tree kid.
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Okay.
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What you're doing is truly making a difference in the world because I vowed when I made it, I would commit my entire life to giving back to the types of agencies that help me.
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Because without without foundations like yours, without providing those community resources, those kids will end up in a much different space.
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I never could have imagined someone like me would end up on a yacht in Montauk.
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But it's all thanks to organizations like yours who are giving back to the world out there.
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So thank you for that work you're doing.
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Of course.
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How can the Elevate community support and elevate you as you continue on this path, both as an agent and with the foundation?
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Foundation, I mean, we have plenty of events next week.
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I I mean I had a late call.
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Obviously, we're here in New York, um, but my foundation is based in Arizona.
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So last night I was on a late call after all the uh the mix and mingling here.
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Um planning one, not only our football camp next weekend.
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Have 200 kids coming.
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But the day before is my birthday, and every year I take a an orphanage to Dave and Buster's at Bomb Birthday Gifts, and we just rock out.
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We rock out for a few hours and they come in there and they just want to beat me at every game, and I'm pulled in every direction, and it's super competitive.
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Um, but we're just we're just loving on kids, you know.
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Um, so that's our whole our whole mentality.
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You can support us, leviwallis.org.
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See all the events we have coming up.
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We have a golf tournament every year in Arizona in March.
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So if you have a great team, you will come and get beat.
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Maybe not by me because I haven't won my golf tournament yet.
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But uh it's it's amazing.
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Everybody's favorite golf tournament they come out to.
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And then on the agency side, I'm always just looking to meet good people.
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Um there's there's a lot of bad people in this industry.
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And so if I can connect good people with great kids that are willing to learn and that want to learn and want to grow in every industry, um I'm looking to do that.
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And so look me up.
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Like Chris said, if you can't get in contact with me, then you must not you must really not want to get in contact with me.
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Because it's not hard.
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It's not hard, and I'm super open, friendly, and honest, um, very genuine, and I'm just here to meet good people.
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Oh, well, we love to do that.
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Let's elevate Levi, Levi.
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One last thing.
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Is there any piece of advice you have for new athletes coming up in the game?
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New advice.
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New advice for new athletes coming up in the game.
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Honestly, I think in this new day and age where NIL has one, given kids the opportunity to make money, but it's always not the smart money.
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Don't chase after money.
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Money comes, money goes.
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Have your hands open always.
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Um, you know, going into this new space, there's a lot of relocation going on with the NIO, and everybody's chasing bags, everybody's chasing money.
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Not developing at all, like how we have to.
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I didn't start until my senior year at Alabama.
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You know, a lot of guys didn't start until the senior year at Alabama unless you were just the best things in sliced bread.
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But you developed along the way.
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You can it's hard to develop if you're in three different programs and three different years, for one.
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For two, um transfers, the the credits, the school credits don't always transfer.
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And guys don't think about that as a chase money.
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Get somebody you really trust, but also going after the biggest bag isn't what's best for you if you're looking to go to the next level.
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I've had a few clients, guys all over college space, get opportunities to go places, maybe lesser college, and have the opportunity to make a lot more money, but is that the best thing for you right now?
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You know what's your what's your real goal?
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And I'm glad the players have the opportunity to make money because it is hard to get into the NFL.
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And anything can happen.
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But at the same time, if that's truly your goal, before NIO, before you were getting paid in college, everyone's goal is to make it to the NFL.
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That's the reason why you got into football.
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And so if that's still your goal, go where it makes sense for you to thrive as a player and as a person and develop as both off the field.
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I feel like that's a mic drop moment.
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Oh, I love it.
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Thanks so much for joining us, Leva, and we can't wait to continue watching you grow and build.
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Thank you.
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Thank you for having me.